Inside Britain's Finest Tudor Town House

[00:00:00]Sometimes you visit a place and immediately  fall in love with it. Today I'm excited to share one of those places with you. Plas Mawr contains an  extraordinary Tudor kitchen, vividly painted rooms, private chambers, and even a toilet dropping  through the wall. But centuries later, this grand family home became crowded lodging  rooms for some of Conwy's poorest residents.

[00:00:26]Hello and welcome to Through Lucy's Lens. Videos  where I go somewhere interesting and hopefully you'll find them interesting, too. My name's  Lucy. I'm a social historian and I'll be your guide during this video. I'm actually on a family  holiday at the moment in North Wales and we're in Conwy. And the house I'm going to show you today,  it wasn't on the plan, but I've just had a little look around and I thought this is too good for  the viewers to miss. So, it's something a little bit more different. We don't necessarily always  concentrate on the upper echelons of society, but today we are a bit, but of course there's  going to be a twist. So, let's go. So, welcome to Plas Mawr. Its name translates as the great house,  although from the high street, its true size is remarkably well concealed. At first, we see an  ornate gate house squeezed between the surrounding buildings. But once through its entrance, the  house really begins to climb away from the street through courtyards, stairways, terraces,  gradually revealing 17 rooms, and one, they say, of the finest surviving Elizabethan town houses in  Britain. The house was built between 1576 and 1585 for Robert Wynn, the third son of a prosperous  North Wales landowner. As a youngest son, Robert could never expect to inherit the principal  family estate. He entered the service of powerful Tudor officials, men closely connected to the royal  court of Henry VIII. His work and military service carried him well beyond Wales. He fought at  the siege of Boulogne in 1544 and took part in campaigns in Scotland and traveled through  parts of continental Europe. Those experiences exposed him to fashionable architecture, elaborate  decoration, and a much wider world than the one into which he'd been born. By the time he returned  to North Wales, Robert had acquired land, money, experience, and ambition. In 1570, by then around  50 years old, he married Dorothy Griffiths. She herself was from a prominent Welsh family and was  already a widow with children. Robert now required a house suitable not merely for domestic life but  for the position he hoped to occupy within local society. The first section the north wing was  completed in around 1577. The central and southern ranges followed around 1580 and the grand gate  house facing the high street was added in 1585.

[00:03:20]Altogether, the land and building work  cost around £800, an enormous investment and several years of Robert's likely income.  The house rises up the hillside in a h shaped plan arranged around an upper courtyard.  Rooms for cooking, storing food, brewing, receiving visitors, sleeping, and entertaining  were organized into distinct areas, allowing the household to function with a surprising degree of  sophistication. Not every object represents Robert and Dorothy's exact home of the 1580s. Instead,  the restoration brings back the color, comfort, and domestic activity of an affluent early modern  household rather than presenting a Tudor interior we often expect. As we go around, I think you'll  be glad they made that choice. Robert's nephew later remembered that he maintained a worthy,  plentiful house. In other words, a household known for generous hospitality. But hospitality  on this scale required constant work. Behind the painted chambers and impressive dinners was an  entire domestic system. Servants carrying water, tending fires, baking bread, brewing ale,  preserving food. The list goes on and on.

[00:04:44]They would be constantly cleaning rooms that  were continually affected by smoke, soot, mud, and candle grease. And that's what I'm here to  look for today. The hall was one of the first principal rooms encountered by anybody entering  the main house. In an early medieval household, the hall might have been the center of almost  everything. Dining, business, hospitality, and even sleeping. By the later 16th century,  however, wealthy households were beginning to divide those activities between more specialised  rooms. Here the hall remained important but its role changed as the house developed. It could  be used to receive ordinary visitors, conduct household business and feed members of the wider  household. By the middle of the 17th century, the grandest entertainment had moved upstairs  to the great chamber, but the servants could dine here below. A caller of a more modest status  might be received here. A trusted friend could be brought here, but an important guest might  eventually be led upstairs into the great chamber. The deeper a visitor traveled into the  house, the greater the favor being shown to them.

[00:06:04]So from the room in which the  household could be displayed, we now move into the room that  helped sustain it, the kitchen.

[00:06:14]This is for me one of the finest rooms in  the entire house. I spent far too long in here because it's one of the best kitchen displays  I've encountered for a long time. The kitchen here survives as an unusually complete example of the  kind of space needed to feed a substantial tudtor and early Stuart household. Its position is also  significant. Traditionally, service rooms were often arranged at the lower end of a great hall.  Here, however, the kitchen and pantry were placed in the central section of the house between the  hall and the more private parlor. It was a really innovative arrangement which allowed servants to  reach several parts of the house without carrying food through the grandest rooms. Meals were more  likely to travel from the fire to the table while they were still warm. Dirty vessels could return  without colliding constantly with guests. Fuel, water, and ingredients needed to enter the  working rooms. Servants needed to pass around the building without unnecessarily intruding on  the family's privacy. The kitchen here, therefore, was not tucked away as an afterthought. It was  a visible part of the machinery of the house.

[00:07:33]Looking around, the first thing to understand  is that cooking here depended upon controlling an open fire. Heat had to be judged through  experience, by the appearance of the flames, the depths of the embers, the distance between  the pot and fire, and even the sound or smell of the food as it cooked. A skilled cook knew when to  build the fire up, when to rake it down, and where to place each vessel. I cannot help thinking in  rooms like this about the servants turning joints of meat at the fire, sweat pouring down them while  a barrage of cooks moved around them, chopping, kneading, boiling, and trying to bring several  dishes together at exactly the right moment. Large pots could be suspended above the flames to boil  meat, make broth, or heat water. Food might be grilled, baked, boiled, fried, or roasted. often  with several processes happening at once. The collection of vessels and utensils displayed here  is sometimes described as a battery de cuisine, the working equipment of a serious kitchen. Some  pieces are historic and others are carefully made reproductions, but together they demonstrate the  range of tools required. Cauldrons, skillets, ladles, knives, spits, I could go on and on.  Each had its place, and keeping them clean was a substantial task in itself. The kitchen here  would have rarely been still. A fire crackling, metal striking metal, a knife working against  a board, footsteps crossing the floor. Perhaps a dog waited in hope that something might fall  within reach. Food also had to be protected from vermin and spoilage. The food safe suspended  from the ceiling helped keep provisions beyond the easiest reach of rats and mice, although no  early modern kitchen could ever be entirely free of them. And surrounding everything, the smells of  smoke, roasting meat, herbs, hot fat, damp wool, and food stored nearby. Beside the kitchen is  the pantry. Today we might use the word pantry for almost any cupboard in which food is stored.  But in a large early modern household like this, storage was divided more carefully between  different rooms and responsibilities. The pantry was traditionally associated particularly  with bread, table linen, and some of the equipment needing for serving meals. Drink would be in  a separate area called a buttery. In practice, the exact use of such rooms could vary from house  to house and change over time. A household capable of entertaining generously needed to know what  it possessed. Bread had to be protected from damp mold, insects, and rodents. Serving vessels had to  be counted. Clothes were washed, dried, counted, and stored. And food supplies were constantly  monitored. Nothing could simply be replaced at a moment's notice. cupboards, chest of drawers  might be locked and only trusted servants might be made responsible for particular stores.  Keys themselves became symbols of household authority. Although a wealthy woman like Dorothy  Wynn, the lady of the house, was not personally scrubbing pots and managing the household. She  needed to oversee servants, provisions, linen, dairying, brewing, baking, and ensure that  reliable people did so on her behalf. So, this pantry belonged to a much bigger system  of domestic accounting. Next is the Brew House, and the Brew House gives us another glimpse into  the work taking place behind the scenes here.

[00:11:33]Brewing was not an occasional novelty in  1665. Ae and beer formed part of the normal provision of a substantial household, consumed  in different strengths and quantities by adults and even in weaker forms by children. This  wasn't because water was dangerous. A claim which is often repeated too broadly, I think,  because communities could use wells, springs, and other water supplies. But brewed drinks  like beer had practical advantages. It supplied calories. It could be produced in quantity,  and it was simply an expected part of the day.

[00:12:18]Brewing required specialist knowledge, careful  timing, and a considerable amount of physical work. Brewing, therefore, occupied substantial  equipment and space. The heat and steam in this room must have been intense. The smell  would have also been distinctive. Damp malt, warm grain, smoke, yeast, and the bitterness  of hops. Brewing and baking were also closely associated in household life. The yeast or balm  from brewing would assist in the raising of bread in the bakery. From this hot and practical service  room, we now step outside into the courtyard. You can see here the hshaped arrangement rising  around this upper courtyard. The courtyard was not just decorative. It acted almost like an  outdoor corridor, allowing movement between parts of the household. Servants would hurry across  here, carrying food, fuel, water, and waste.

[00:13:26]We're now upstairs in a room known  as the chamber over the parlor.

[00:13:32]This chamber is traditionally interpreted as  a room associated with the lady of the house, the person married to the owner. The precise  use of individual rooms could change between generations. So we should always be cautious  about treating every modern label as absolute.

[00:13:51]But the arrangement here strongly suggests that  the principal family chambers occupied this more private upper level. A chamber in a wealthy  Tudor or Stuart household was much more than a place just to sleep. It would also function  as a private sitting room, dressing room, a place for prayer and contemplation, and a  space where trusted visitors were received. The bed was practical and also highly visible.  A substantial bed, curtains, good linen, and warm coverings represented wealth. Textiles  were amongst the most valuable possessions in many homes and were carefully listed in wills  and inventories. Bed curtains offered warmth and privacy, creating a smaller enclosure within  a large drafty room. Chambers like this may have also been a place of vulnerability. Child birth  took place at home and remain dangerous for both mother and baby. Illness was treated within the  household in rooms like this too, using a mixture of practical knowledge, inherited remedies,  religious beliefs, and professional advice where it could be obtained. A woman might spend periods  of confinement here before and after giving birth, surrounded by female relatives, servants,  or neighbors. This room occasionally speaks of unexplained footsteps, figures glimpsed into  the rooms, and a tragic story involving a woman, a child, and a young doctor. Different versions  have accumulated over time, and the details of the stories I've read don't fit neatly with the  documented history of Robert Wynn family. So, for me, they're best treated as folklore rather  than fact. I never felt anything unusual while I was here, but it's easy to understand why stories  gathered around a house like this. Narrow stairs, deep fireplaces, shifting light, and centuries of  family life create exactly the kind of setting in which a creek, a shadow, or an unexpected  sound can take on a life of its own.

[00:16:05]Across the hallway from the lady's chamber is the  room generally interpreted as the main bedroom for the man of the house. Again, not somewhere simply  to sleep. For the master of a household, a chamber could be a place to dress, read, conduct private  meetings, store valuable possessions, and receive selected visitors away from the more public rooms.  Its fireplace was an important luxury. Individual heated chambers allowed the family to withdraw  from communal spaces without surrendering their comfort. A visitor admitted this far into the  house had entered a deeply personal but still carefully staged environment. But this is me  and for me the most memorable feature of this room is far more practical. The guardrobe or  drop toilet. This small private convenience allowed waste to fall through a chute down into  the ground. Compared with using a chamber pot and waiting for a servant to remove it, this was  undoubtedly convenient and a sign of status.

[00:17:20]In between these two rooms is a small central  chamber. It's interpreted as a sleeping accommodation for a servant and its location is  revealing. A personal servant could be summoned quickly during the night to tend the fire,  bring light, carry water, empty a chamber pot, fetch clothing, or respond to illness. In  some households, servants would even sleep on a truckle bed in the same room as their master  and mistress to attend to their every need. The physical distance between a servant and employer  was small. The social distance was enormous. The servant slept within the family's private suite,  yet without sharing its comfort or status. Before the family rose, a fire might need reviving.  Clothes laid out, water brought, bedding attended to. A servant was expected to remain available  while also making themselves unobtrusive.

[00:18:27]Next, we move into the great chamber, and this  is the ceremonial center of the house. This is where the house is its most confident. The  room is large, well lit, and richly decorated, positioned above the central service rooms.  And I thought that's like the entire working household underneath this room is lifting and  supporting the display that takes place in this room up. Important guests could dine  here. Business could be conducted. Music, conversation, and dancing could take place. Meals  that were served in this room were performances of hospitality as much as acts of nourishment.  Guests would approach through the house, climb the stairs, and finally arrive beneath a ceiling  crowded with color, heraldry, and symbolism. The message in this room is clear. The winds belonged  within a world of linage, monarchy, and power.

[00:19:26]Quite interestingly, the Great Chamber may  originally have been intended to stand open to its magnificent roof timbers. But there  was a mismatch created during construction that meant that the walls and the roof did  not align. Rather than displaying the error, the builders concealed it behind a plaster  ceiling. Cuz I love details like this.

[00:19:50]Even in one of Britain's finest surviving  Elizabeth and houses, there's evidence of a builder quietly deciding that the easiest answer  was to hide the awkward bit behind a big ceiling.

[00:20:42]The house eventually passed through descendants  and by the later 17th century into the wider Mustin family. Its days as the principal home  of one ambitious win household came to an end.

[00:20:55]But the building didn't become a frozen Stuart time capsule. Its next life was very different.

[00:21:03]At the top of the house, the atmosphere  changes completely. Below us, the rooms are restored to evoke the prosperous household  recorded in the 17th century. But in this room, we step forward into the 19th century. After the  house ceased to function as a single gentry home, it was divided and adapted for different uses.  Parts became a school. Some rooms were occupied by small businesses and other spaces were  let as inexpensive accommodation. Some of the poorest people in Conwy. By 1881, 25 people  were recorded as living within the building.

[00:21:47]Large chambers once designed for hospitality  were subdivided, and the relationship, I think, between space and status had been reversed. Rooms  that had once proclaimed the wealth of one family now sheltered numerous tenants of far more modest  means. The attic has been furnished to suggest the home of Jane Roberts, a widowed washerwoman  who lived here with her two sons around 1870.

[00:22:15]The furniture is basic. The table provides space  simply for eating and work. As a washerwoman, Jane earned money through one of the most  physically demanding forms of domestic labour. A building like this, although it  was a home, because it was centuries old, it offered limited ventilation and few  modern conveniences. And it's hard not to compare Jane's daily movement through the  house with that of its earliest residents.

[00:22:44]Robert Wyn had invested hundreds of pounds  creating courtyards, chambers, and service rooms.

[00:22:51]But nearly three centuries later, Jane Roberts was  carrying out paid washing from an attic within the same walls. You won't be surprised that this was  my favorite room in the house. By the late 19th century, concern was growing about the condition  of the building. The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art eventually leased the house and used it as their  headquarters. Repairs were undertaken and some of the exceptional plaster work conserved. During the  20th century, however, maintaining such a complex building became increasingly difficult. In 1993,  the house passed into state care under CADW.

[00:23:34]What followed was an extensive program of  research, conservation, and restoration during the 1990s. And gosh, I'm very glad they  did because I absolutely loved this house.

[00:23:54]I hope you enjoyed that. Isn't it wonderful? All  those domestic details. That's what I love to see.

[00:24:01]And this morning we were in Conwy Castle and I'm  thinking why is it so busy there when here is the place to be folks. So if you find yourself this  way do pop in. It's a bit of a hidden gem right in the center of town and I think absolutely  worth a visit because as usual what I can say in a maybe 20 30 minute video is not going to be  actually being here yourself. So come down if you can. I'm going to leave it here for this week. As  always, thank you for your support. Please do all that youtuby stuff that I hate asking for, liking,  subscribing, and I'll see you on the next one. Who knows where we're going to be because there's lots  of surprises happening on this little holiday that I wasn't even going to show you. And here we are.  So, till the next one. See you later. Bye-bye.